No Ballot Question On Open-space Plan

September 07, 1988|by HAL MARCOVITZ, The Morning Call

Bucks County voters will not see a referendum on the November ballot asking them whether they favor spending $50 million to preserve open space.

Republican Commissioner Andrew L. Warren said yesterday he will not support placing an open space preservation question on the ballot. Republican Commissioner Mark S. Schweiker is already on record opposing such a ballot question.

The commissioners originally had until the end of this week to place a question on the ballot, due to a ballot-printing deadline. Warren said that deadline has been extended a week because of an unresolved issue involving candidates for state office.

The Bucks County Board of Elections, which is composed of the three commissioners, is scheduled to meet next Wednesday. Warren said that meeting would be scheduled in sufficient time to slate a ballot question.

But it appears there aren't enough votes on the board to approve the question. Democratic Commissioner Lucille M. Trench said she still supports staging the referendum and is prepared to offer a resolution at the meeting to list the question on the ballot.

Warren said, though, that while the Republican administration favors preserving open space the commissioners don't need a ballot question to tell them how to do it.

"It's safe to say that parkland and open space acquisition will be a major part in the preparation of the 1989 budget, but it won't be to the degree of $50 million, which has been recommended," said Warren.

U.S. Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer, D-8th District, submitted a plan to the commissioners calling for a $50 million bond issue to purchase more than 8,000 acres of open space. The commissioners also received a similar plan from Kostmayer's Republican opponent, Edward L. Howard, who suggested that the county assess a fee on developers to finance open space acquisitions.

Warren said the county intends to make a financial commitment to open space acquisition. Much of that money, he said, will come from landowners who pay penalties when they break land use covenants that are intended to grant them tax breaks for keeping their properties in open space.

Trench said the county should be prepared to make a major financial commitment to buy open space as quickly as possible.

"The money may be available but the land won't be," she said. "We're losing hundreds of acres of open space a day."